


The Off Day

by princessofmind



Series: Three's A Crowd [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 20:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessofmind/pseuds/princessofmind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usually, you’re the first one awake, considering how late your boys are usually up, but today you wake up alone.  There’s sound coming from the television in the living room, and you don’t even bother with your glasses before you stumble out to investigate.</p><p>Oh.  So it’s going to be one of those days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Off Day

Days where the three of you have days off at the same time are few and far between. It’s not that you’re never all together, it’s just usually at the end of the day or later in the evening when they get home from work or you get back from a late night cramming session at the library. You have the most consistent schedule, as a student, which means you go from about eight in the morning till three in the afternoon on weekdays and have weekends off. Sollux is a couple years older than you, and is working some horrid, nine to five intro level programming job for a colossal firm, and sometimes has to do overtime on the weekends but also gets to come home early and work from his PC on the odd occasion. Karkat has the most irregular hours, doing his rounds at the hospital for his last year in nursing school (currently he’s working night shifts in the children’s ward, and while it means you and Sollux almost never see him, pediatrics is where he wants to end up, so even sleep deprived and more grumpy than usual, he’s transparently happy).

The stars aligned this week, however, and when you found out that all three of you were off on Friday, you’d spent the entire week daydreaming through your classes of spending the day lazing in bed, marathon finishing the season of Psych you’d abandoned when Karkat’s shifts changed, and sex. Lots of sex. So on Thursday you stay up a little later than usual to finish a paper you have due online on Saturday, wanting to have your whole day free to spend with your boyfriends, and the thought of the day ahead makes the big empty bed a bit more tolerable at the moment. Sollux joins you eventually, even though you almost clock him in the face because you startle easily, and even though the two of them keep such weird hours, always have since you all moved in together over a year ago, but you’re still not used to people getting in bed with you at butts o’clock. He dodges your flailing fists with an ease that speaks of much practice and settles against your back, and when Karkat drops into bed almost three hours later, smelling like antiseptic and cigarette smoke, he tucks against your chest, and the warmth on either side of your body is what pushes you into a sleep that lasts well into the afternoon.

Usually, you’re the first one awake, considering how late your boys are usually up, but today you wake up alone. There’s sound coming from the television in the living room, and you don’t even bother with your glasses before you stumble out to investigate.

Oh. So it’s going to be one of those days.

You are unforgivingly terrible at video games. They already don’t hold much interest to you, but living with an absolute asshole like Sollux has withered any fledgling skills you might have had. If he asks nice enough, you’ll play with Karkat if he’s jonesing for a fix and Sollux isn’t around, but you’d sooner start cutting off fingers then pick up a controller when Sollux was in the apartment to sneer over his glasses at your “truly pathetic” skills. But the two of them are evenly matched enough that it’s not uncommon for you to leave for class in the morning with them sitting on the futon and return seven hours to no sign of any movement whatsoever. Which is fine, honestly. You feel a bit like a babysitter who just plunks the kids down in front of the television when they need to get something done, and the Call of Duty marathons usually take place after you’ve gone to bed or while you’re otherwise occupied.

Not on your shared days off.

They’re like, sacred days. Or were.

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me,” you groan, scrubbing your hand over your face, half hoping that maybe when you open your eyes the image on the screen will have disappeared. But it’s still there, with the addition of the Irritated Scowl (patented) on Sollux’s face.

“Don’t be a drama queen,” he says, fingers tapping rapidly over the buttons as he speaks, not even bothering to look back at you as he does so. “You didn’t tell us that we had other plans, so don’t get pissy.”

“I didn’t realize I needed to put in a reservation,” you sneer back, and okay, maybe you lied, the video game thing drives you up the fucking wall when it comes to Sollux. You know he’s rolling his eyes behind his grimy glasses, but since he won’t look at you, you just have to assume. Karkat actually turns to look at you, and while he doesn’t exactly look apologetic, he doesn’t look irritated like Sollux does.

“We’re not gonna be here all day,” he says, placatingly, and damn it, you don’t want to be placated. You’d wanted to wake up sandwiched between them, warm and smothered with Sollux snoring in your ear and Karkat laying on your arm so that you get awful pins and needles whenever he moves. And now you’re just irritated since you woke up cold and alone.

“Yeah right,” you snap, and regret it almost instantly, because Karkat is a tender soul like yourself. You can’t just be a dick to him like you can to Sollux and expect it to just roll off his shoulders like water off a duck’s back. Karkat turns back to the screen before you can get a good look at his face, but he’s hunched a little more, and you want to punch yourself. But you still feel a bit justified in your anger, so you stomp off (loudly) to shower and brood.

Of course, you do the opposite of brood while you shampoo and condition and scrub, because you’re kind of being a bitch. Just because you think video games are a colossal waste of time doesn’t mean they do, and if you hadn’t just made assumptions about how the day was supposed to go, you could have easily had them at least waking you up for some snuggle time before they got out of bed. But you’re arguably the worst at communicating out of the three of you (yes, even worse than Sollux), tending to have a very specific idea of how things are supposed to go and getting wretchedly pissed off and defensive when no one follows the script you didn’t give them. You like making yourself out to be the victim a little too much; it’s something you’re working on.

But now you’ve made an ass of yourself, and can’t very well just go in there and apologize and ask to hang out. They’re well and truly sucked in now, and any distraction would just be shoved aside. So you don’t bother styling your hair (a peace offering of sorts; you hate how it curls, but they both love how soft and springy your hair is when you don’t put product in it), just throw on a pair of sweatpants and one of Sollux’s worn-thin, stupid soft t-shirts before ambling out to the kitchen. There’s a science to getting them to at least acknowledge your presence when they’re occupied by the television, because asking outright usually gets you ignored or fussed at. So you go back and forth from the kitchen to your bedroom, crossing the living room each time and pausing behind the futon, leaning against the wooden frame with your hip and sighing, waiting just a moment before continuing to clink around in the kitchen or rummage in your closet.

Maybe because you snapped at them earlier, it doesn’t take quite as many passes before Sollux’s eyebrow is twitching, and you let out a particularly forlorn sigh, almost a whine instead of a sigh, and he snaps, “oh for fuck’s sake, do something about him.”

Karkat snickers, scooting forward on the futon and away from Sollux a little, and you don’t need any further encouragement to climb over the back of the futon (the first time you got invited to join them, you walked around in front of them and almost got pelted with two XBOX controllers). You settle between them, moving so your chest is pressed to Karkat’s back, and when he feels you tuck against him, he settles back so that his weight is leaned against you, pushing you against the futon. Hooking your chin over his shoulder, his wild hair obscures some of your vision, but you know better than to try and do much else besides wrap your arms around his waist and savor the way he’s pressing you back against the soft, well-worn fabric.

At the moment, your legs are kind of awkwardly hanging off the edge of the futon, and you turn to cast a hesitating glance at Sollux. For as disinterested as he appears, you don’t have to look at him for long before he meets your gaze and sighs, lifting the controller from his lap as he scooted closer, jerking his head once in clear invitation. You stretch your legs out over his, and he hugs your knees to his chest when he drapes his arms, still holding the controller, around your skinny limbs. It leaves you twisted at kind of a strange angle, with your upper half pinned by Karkat and your legs held captive by Sollux, but it has you held by both of them without hindering their ability to play.

Once you’re settled and actually paying attention to the screen, you realize that you don’t even recognize the game they’re playing, meaning it’s either very new or very old. Not that you care, but means you’re completely unfamiliar with the objective or mechanics of what they’re trying to do. “Who’s winning?” you ask, because it’s easier to look at who’s succeeding and figure it out yourself than to ask them to explain.

“Who do you think?” they say in unison, Karkat’s voice a frustrated growl and Sollux’s smug and sweet. It shouldn’t be so profoundly endearing, but it is, and when Karkat nuzzles the side of your face and Sollux hugs your knees tighter, you decide that maybe the entire day isn’t lost at all.


End file.
